starlight
by fall from stars
Summary: ONESHOT—We’ll make a wish, and do as dreamers do. [ZackxAerith]


**A/N: **As always, your Matinee Idol here, only this time with a deep dive into—gasp!—very canon Final Fantasy. I've never played _FF7_ (I know, blasphemy), but I've seen enough Zack/Aerith conversations, AMVs, and heard enough songs that remind me of them to ship them hardcore. I was even more convinced when I finally saw _Last Order_, and became a total Zack fan. (Yes, I still need _Crisis Core_. Yes, that's the only reason I want a PSP now.)

So I decided to plop them into the _KH_ verse, because the_ FF_ cameos are missing some much-needed happiness in Zack. It's all depressing people like Cloud and Leon and Auron, and as awesome as they are, I like happy people too. The song featured in this is from the Disneyland 50th Anniversary Fireworks Show: _Remember Dreams Come True_, which is really sappy, but still makes me happy and feel like a little kid again.

Read and review! Constructive crit on both these characters would be lovely, since I've never written them before. So…yes. On with the show!

**Starlight**

She always remembers Zack.

For Aerith, it's always been hard to forget things. He did so much for her, and she did so much for him, and she is always sitting, waiting, wishing for him to come back. But she remembers him best at night, when she's resting somewhere secret and safe.

---

In her dreams they are very young, because the light still falls in silver streaks from the sky.

They go through their days hand-in-hand, sometimes with Leon and the others and sometimes without.

They run away from some trouble he's caused, bound to start something just as bad just ten minutes later.

They set up mock duels to be strong when they are grown-up, Zack with a wooden sword and Aerith with a toy mage's staff. They buy shiny presents for birthdays and holidays together, and throw falling stardust into each other's hair.

And they stargaze every night, looking out into the bright mystery of space, and one night he teaches her a song he remembers that his mom used to sing to him.

_Star light, star bright  
First star I see tonight  
I wish I may, I wish I might  
Have the wish I wish tonight.  
We'll make a wish,  
And do as dreamers do,  
And do as dreamers do.  
And all our wishes,  
And all our wishes  
Will come true_.

"It sounds so pretty," she says brightly, trying out the song again when Zack asks nicely for it.

"I think all moms sing it," he says, clapping once she's finished. "So you can sing it to our kids someday, right, Aer?"

She's surprised and a hand goes up to her mouth to cover her smile. "We're getting married?"

"Of course!" Zack's even more surprised than she is. "C'mon, don't you want to?"

"But we're only eight!" she protests, wrinkling her nose.

"Not yet," he says, green eyes shining. "I mean, we will if you want to. But when we're older. Not now."

"Oh," she says, and her face falls.

"Unless you want to right now?" he asks solemnly. He takes a plastic frog ring out of his pocket, folds it into Aerith's palm.

She takes the ring, puts it on her finger. "It's a promise that we will, someday. Okay?"

Zack starts to say okay and then suddenly the darkness comes; everything's all wrong; it's all fallen head-first into a nightmare. Zack tells her to run away, _run away go now don't worry Aerith I'll protect you_, and then—

---

When she wakes up that ring is still around her neck, wound tight on a string that keeps it with her. Her fingers have outgrown the ring, but she knows her heart hasn't outgrown him.

She sits and waits and wishes for her solider to come back, she sits and waits and wishes for her man in arms. She knows it takes so much more than darkness to bring him down, that he meant it when he said he'd come back.

"You keep waiting on your cliff for me," he had said to her, nearer to the end when he was away fighting darkness with the other soldiers. "Because we're going to win, we're going to come back. And I'll be leading the way."

He had even said he loved her. It's the last thing he ever said to her, the last thing she remembers. Until the day comes when the wind brought him back to her, until the day comes when she can believe in falling stars and dreams come true again. He holds her underneath the stars, Aad she tries as hard as she can to tell herself that this isn't a dream, that it's coming true after all. And he holds onto her as tight as he can, all dark eyes and strong skin, telling himself the same thing.

And he says, a little disaffected, happy, flattered: "You waited for me after all," and she says of course she did, and when he sees the ring he laughs fondly and says, "You still have this thing?"

She puts it on, even if the plastic pinches at her skin, and she says: "Of course, Zack, of course I did," and she's so happy she feels her heart could burst. But she only smiles, softly, and under the stars she sings him a song, a song he remembers that his mother used to sing to him.

_Star light, star bright  
First star I see tonight  
I wish I may, I wish I might  
Have the wish I wish tonight.  
We'll make a wish,  
And do as dreamers do,  
And do as dreamers do.  
And all our wishes,  
And all our wishes  
Will come true_.

---

**A/N:** Saaaap. I know. But I couldn't help it. They're just so cute and even if Zack died in FF7 canon, so did Aerith. So nyah, I can bring him back so they can be happy and sing songs and wear frog rings together. Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
